110-546: The Anatolic Theme ( Greek : Άνατολικόν [θέμα] , Anatolikon [thema] ), more properly known as the Theme of the Anatolics (Greek: θέμα Άνατολικῶν , thema Anatolikōn ), was a Byzantine theme (a military-civilian province) in central Asia Minor (modern Turkey ). From its establishment, it was the largest and senior-most of the themes, and its military governors ( stratēgoi ) were powerful individuals, several of them rising to
220-745: A raid that reached Iconium in 963. The first Turkish attack on the theme is recorded in 1069, when the Turks attacked Iconium. Most of the province was overrun by the Turks after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, with Iconium becoming the seat of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in the 12th century. The last appearance of the Anatolic Theme in the historical sources is in 1077, when its stratēgos , Nikephoros Botaneiates , proclaimed himself emperor (Nikephoros III, r. 1078–1081). The Byzantines managed to recover some of
330-530: A second Arab civil war was raging in Arabia and Syria resulting in a series of four caliphs between the death of Muawiyah in 680 and the ascension of Abd al-Malik in 685, and was ongoing until 692 with the death of the rebel leader. The Saracen Wars of Justinian II (r. 685–695 and 705–711), last emperor of the Heraclian Dynasty , "reflected the general chaos of the age". After a successful campaign he made
440-512: A "Roman lake", to Arab expansion, and began a centuries-long series of naval conflicts over the control of the Mediterranean waterways. 500 Byzantine ships were destroyed in the battle, and Emperor Constans II was almost killed. Under the instructions of the caliph Uthman ibn Affan , Muawiyah then prepared for the siege of Constantinople . Trade between the Muslim eastern and southern shores and
550-509: A Muslim army north to Tabuk in present-day northwestern Saudi Arabia , with the intention of pre-emptively engaging the Byzantine army, however, the Byzantine army had retreated beforehand. Though it was not a battle in the typical sense, nevertheless the event represented the first Arab encounter against the Byzantines. It did not, however, lead immediately to a military confrontation. There
660-570: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
770-556: A division, or tourma , of the Anatolics) and Seleucia . Emperor Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912) later ceded the region west of Lake Tatta (the banda of Eudokias , Hagios Agapetos and Aphrazeia ) to Cappadocia. The theme's capital was Amorium , until the sack of the city by the Abbasids in 838. After that, it was probably transferred to the nearby fortress of Polybotos . According to
880-552: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in
990-556: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
1100-531: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near
1210-501: A major army reform with lasting effect: the establishment of the themata , the large territorial commands into which Anatolia, the major contiguous territory remaining to the Empire, was divided. The remains of the old field armies were settled in each of them, and soldiers were allocated land there in payment of their service. The themata would form the backbone of the Byzantine defensive system for centuries to come. After his victory in
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#17330860605871320-615: A man who became known to history and legend as Count Julian . As the first tide of the Muslim conquests in the Near East ebbed off, and a semi-permanent border between the two powers was established, a wide zone, unclaimed by either Byzantines or Arabs and virtually deserted (known in Arabic as al-Ḍawāḥī , "the outer lands" and in Greek as τὰ ἄκρα , ta akra , "the extremities") emerged in Cilicia , along
1430-705: A naval power of their own, and they conquered and destroyed the Byzantine stronghold of Carthage between 695 and 698. The loss of Africa meant that soon, Byzantine control of the Western Mediterranean was challenged by a new and expanding Arab fleet, operating from Tunisia. Muawiyah began consolidating the Arab territory from the Aral Sea to the western border of Egypt. He put a governor in place in Egypt at al-Fustat , and launched raids into Anatolia in 663. Then from 665 to 689
1540-452: A navy, manned by Monophysitise Christian , Copt and Jacobite Syrian Christian sailors and Muslim troops. This resulted in the defeat of the Byzantine navy at the Battle of the Masts in 655, opening up the Mediterranean. The shocking defeat of the imperial fleet by the young Muslim navy at the Battle of the Masts in 655 was of critical importance: it opened up the Mediterranean, hitherto
1650-466: A new North African campaign was launched to protect Egypt "from flank attack by Byzantine Cyrene ". An Arab army of 40,000 took Barca , defeating 30,000 Byzantines. A vanguard of 10,000 Arabs under Uqba ibn Nafi followed from Damascus . In 670, Kairouan (modern Tunisia ) was established as a base for further invasions; Kairouan would become the capital of the Islamic province of Ifriqiya , and one of
1760-508: A renewed offensive against Constantinople. In Byzantium, the general Leo the Isaurian (r. 717–741) had just seized the throne in March 717, when the massive Muslim army under the famed Umayyad prince and general Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik began moving towards the imperial capital. The Caliphate's army and navy, led by Maslama, numbered some 120,000 men and 1,800 ships according to the sources. Whatever
1870-545: A series of wars from the 7th to 11th centuries between multiple Arab dynasties and the Byzantine Empire . The Muslim Arab Caliphates conquered large parts of the Christian Byzantine empire and unsuccessfully attacked the Byzantine capital of Constantinople . The frontier between the warring states remained almost static for three centuries of frequent warfare, before the Byzantines were able to recapture some of
1980-586: A truce with the Arabs, agreeing on joint possession of Armenia , Iberia and Cyprus ; however, by removing 12,000 Christian Mardaites from their native Lebanon , he removed a major obstacle for the Arabs in Syria, and in 692, after the disastrous Battle of Sebastopolis , the Muslims invaded and conquered all of Armenia. Deposed in 695, with Carthage lost in 698, Justinian returned to power from 705 to 711. His second reign
2090-766: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout
2200-742: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system
2310-474: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During
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#17330860605872420-505: Is attested for the first time in 669, while the army itself is mentioned, as the exercitus Orientalis , as late as an iussio of Justinian II in 687. During the wars with the Arabs in the 7th and 8th centuries, the Anatolic Theme—especially Cappadocia , its easternmost region—was frequently either a target of Arab invasions, or at the forefront of the Byzantine counter-raids into Arab territory, which began after
2530-514: Is no contemporary Byzantine account of the Tabuk expedition, and many of the details come from much later Muslim sources. It has been argued that there is in one Byzantine source possibly referencing the Battle of Mu´tah traditionally dated 629, but this is not certain. The first engagements may have started as conflicts with the Arab client states of the Byzantine and Sassanid empires: the Ghassanids and
2640-510: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to
2750-1050: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Arab%E2%80%93Byzantine wars Inconclusive Rashidun Caliphate Sunni States : Shia States : The Levant Egypt North Africa Anatolia & Constantinople Border conflicts Sicily and Southern Italy Naval warfare Byzantine reconquest The Arab–Byzantine wars or Muslim–Byzantine wars were
2860-471: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around
2970-758: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
3080-630: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with
3190-486: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It
3300-517: The First Arab Siege of the city. Constantine IV (r. 661–685) however used a devastating new weapon that came to be known as " Greek fire ", invented by a Christian refugee from Syria named Kallinikos of Heliopolis , to decisively defeat the attacking Umayyad navy in the Sea of Marmara , resulting in the lifting of the siege in 678. The returning Muslim fleet suffered further losses due to storms, while
3410-476: The Ghassanids , a Byzantine vassal kingdom. Muhammad died in 632 and was succeeded by Abu Bakr , the first Caliph with undisputed control of the entire Arabian Peninsula after the successful Ridda wars , which resulted in the consolidation of a powerful Muslim state throughout the peninsula. According to Muslim biographies, Muhammed, having received intelligence that Byzantine forces were concentrating in northern Arabia with intentions of invading Arabia, led
Anatolic Theme - Misplaced Pages Continue
3520-510: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
3630-656: The Lakhmids of Al-Hirah . In any case, Muslim Arabs after 634 certainly pursued a full-blown offensive against both empires, resulting in the conquest of the Levant , Egypt and Persia for Islam. The most successful Arab generals were Khalid ibn al-Walid and 'Amr ibn al-'As . In the Levant, the invading Rashidun army were engaged by a Byzantine army composed of imperial troops as well as local levies. According to Islamic historians, Monophysites and Jews throughout Syria welcomed
3740-622: The Macedonian dynasty , exploiting the decline and fragmentation of the Abbasid Caliphate , the Byzantines gradually went on the offensive, and recovered much territory in the 10th century, which was lost however after 1071 to the Seljuk Turks . Following the failure to capture Constantinople in 717–718, the Umayyads for a time diverted their attention elsewhere, allowing the Byzantines to take to
3850-628: The Roman province of Mauretania where he was finally halted. As the historian Luis Garcia de Valdeavellano explains: In their struggle against the Byzantines and the Berbers, the Arab chieftains had greatly extended their African dominions, and as early as the year 682 Uqba had reached the shores of the Atlantic, but he was unable to occupy Tangier, for he was forced to turn back toward the Atlas Mountains by
3960-620: The Umayyads came to power under Muawiyah I . Under the Umayyads the conquest of the remaining Byzantine and northern Berber territories in North Africa was completed and the Arabs were able to move across large parts of the Berber world, invading Visigothic Spain through the Strait of Gibraltar , under the command of the allegedly Berber general Tariq ibn-Ziyad . But this happened only after they developed
4070-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in
4180-449: The 10th-century Arab geographers Qudama ibn Ja'far and Ibn al-Faqih , the Anatolic Theme, "the largest of the provinces of the Romans", fielded 15,000 men, and contained 34 fortresses. It and its military governor, or stratēgos , first attested in 690, ranked first in precedence among the theme governors. As such, the " stratēgos of the Anatolics" ( στρατηγός τῶν Άνατολικῶν ) was one of
4290-465: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into
4400-599: The 650s onwards, Arab navies entered the Mediterranean Sea , which became a major battleground. Both sides launched raids and counter-raids against islands and coastal settlements. The Rashiduns were succeeded by the Umayyad Caliphate in 661, who over the next fifty years captured Byzantine Cyrenaica and launched repeated raids into Byzantine Asia Minor . Umayyad forces twice placed Constantinople under siege, in 674 to 678 and 717 to 718 , but were unable to capture
4510-574: The Abassids as the major Arab power; they halted the Byzantine reconquests although border conflicts continued. The frontier remained stable until the Seljuk Turks began to take territory from both the Arabs and Byzantines in the 1040s and 1050s, forming the Seljuk Empire and beginning the Byzantine–Seljuk wars . The prolonged and escalating Byzantine–Sasanian wars of the 6th and 7th centuries and
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4620-533: The Abbasid state entered a period of decline and fragmentation. Simultaneously, the Byzantines began a resurgence under their emperors of the Macedonian dynasty . From c. 920 to 976, the Byzantines pushed Arab forces back, recovering some of their lost territories in northern Syria and Armenia. The Emirate of Crete was reconquered in 961. By the end of the 10th century the Fatimid Caliphate had replaced
4730-611: The Anatolic Theme included the western and southern shores of Asia Minor as well, but by c. 720 they were split off to form the Thracesian and Cibyrrhaeot themes. Under Theophilos (r. 829–842), its eastern and south-eastern portions, facing the Arab frontier zone and including the forts that guarded the northern entrance to the Cilician Gates , were detached to form two new frontier districts ( kleisourai ), those of Cappadocia (originally
4840-447: The Anatolic Theme's territory. Apart from Caliph al-Mu'tasim 's great invasion against Amorium in 838, attacks that penetrated into the Anatolics' territory are reported for the year 878, when the thematic troops successfully defended Mistheia , and again in 888, 894 and 897, always in the southeastern portion of the theme around Iconium . The 10th century was largely peaceful, with the exception of yet another sack of Amorium in 931 and
4950-481: The Anatolics would be stalwart supporters of the Isaurians, including their iconoclastic policies , and in 742 Leo III's son and successor, Constantine V, found refuge and support in the theme against the usurper Artabasdos . The Anatolic Theme served as the base for several bids for the throne in later centuries as well: the failed revolt of Bardanes Tourkos in 803 was followed by the successful proclamation of Leo V
5060-414: The Arab fleet suffered further casualties to storms and an eruption of the volcano of Thera . The first wave of the Muslim conquests ended with the siege of Constantinople in 718, and the border between the two empires became stabilized along the mountains of eastern Anatolia. Raids and counter-raids continued on both sides and became almost ritualized, but the prospect of outright conquest of Byzantium by
5170-551: The Arabs as liberators, as they were discontented with the rule of the Byzantines. The Roman Emperor Heraclius had fallen ill and was unable to personally lead his armies to resist the Arab conquests of Syria and Roman Paelestina in 634. In a battle fought near Ajnadayn in the summer of 634, the Rashidun Caliphate army achieved a decisive victory. After their victory at the Fahl , Muslim forces conquered Damascus in 634 under
5280-697: The Armenian (r. 813–820) by the Anatolic troops in 813, and the large-scale rebellion of Thomas the Slav in 820–823. In the 10th century, however, the theme appears on the sidelines of the rebellions of the period. The next and last rebellion by a stratēgos of the Anatolics was that of Nikephoros Xiphias in 1022, against Basil II (r. 976–1025). Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ )
5390-449: The Asian land themes. The exact date of the theme's establishment is unknown. Along with the other original themes, it was created sometime after the 640s as a military encampment area for the remnants of the old field armies of the East Roman army , which were withdrawn to Asia Minor in the face of the Muslim conquests . The Anatolic Theme was settled and took its name from the army of the East (Greek: Άνατολή , Anatolē ). The theme
5500-413: The Byzantine Exarchate of Africa . Tripolitania was conquered, followed by Sufetula , 150 miles (240 km) south of Carthage , and the governor and self-proclaimed Emperor of Africa Gregory was killed. Abdallah's booty-laden force returned to Egypt in 648 after Gregory's successor, Gennadius, promised them an annual tribute of some 300,000 nomismata . Following a civil war in the Arab Empire
5610-419: The Byzantine Empire and weakening its armies in the following decades. The Byzantine navy briefly won back Alexandria in 645, but lost it again in 646 shortly after the Battle of Nikiou . The Islamic forces raided Sicily in 652, while Cyprus and Crete were captured in 653. However, Crete reverted to Eastern Roman rule until the 820s. In 647, a Rashidun-Arab army led by Abdallah ibn al-Sa’ad invaded
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#17330860605875720-456: The Byzantine authorities in Egypt and Mesopotamia purchased an expensive truce, which lasted three years for Egypt and one year for Mesopotamia. Antioch fell to the Muslim armies in late 637, and by then the Muslims occupied the whole of northern Syria, except for upper Mesopotamia , which they granted a one-year truce. At the expiration of this truce in 638–639, the Arabs overran Byzantine Mesopotamia and Byzantine Armenia , and terminated
5830-429: The Byzantines at bay, as well as the corresponding retaliatory Byzantine raids, eventually became established as a fixture of Byzantine–Arab warfare for the next three centuries. The outbreak of the Muslim Civil War in 656 bought a precious breathing pause for Byzantium, which Emperor Constans II (r. 641–668) used to shore up his defences, extend and consolidate his control over Armenia and most importantly, initiate
5940-412: The Byzantines is illustrated by Joannes Zonaras ' words: "[...] since then [after the fall of Syria] the race of the Ishmaelites did not cease from invading and plundering the entire territory of the Romans". In April 637 the Arabs, after a long siege, captured Jerusalem , which was surrendered by Patriarch Sophronius . In the summer of 637, the Muslims conquered Gaza , and, during the same period,
6050-431: The Byzantines usually avoided, and into a series of costly assaults, before turning the deep valleys and cliffs into a catastrophic death-trap. Heraclius' farewell exclamation (according to the 9th-century historian Al-Baladhuri ) while departing Antioch for Constantinople , is expressive of his disappointment: "Peace unto thee, O Syria, and what an excellent country this is for the enemy!" The impact of Syria's loss on
6160-402: The Caliphate receded. This led to far more regular, and often friendly, diplomatic contacts, as well as a reciprocal recognition of the two empires. In response to the Muslim threat, which reached its peak in the first half of the 8th century, the Isaurian emperors adopted the policy of Iconoclasm , which was abandoned in 786 only to be readopted in the 820s and finally abandoned in 843. Under
6270-498: The Christian northern shores almost ceased during this period, isolating Western Europe from developments in the Muslim world: "In antiquity, and again in the high Middle Ages, the voyage from Italy to Alexandria was commonplace; in early Islamic times the two countries were so remote that even the most basic information was unknown" (Kennedy). Muawiyah also initiated the first large-scale raids into Anatolia from 641 on. These expeditions, aiming both at plunder and at weakening and keeping
6380-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
6490-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than
6600-442: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
6710-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow
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#17330860605876820-446: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community
6930-440: The Muslims to continue their military expansion into North Africa; between 643 and 644 'Amr completed the conquest of Cyrenaica . Uthman succeeded Caliph Umar after his death. According to Arab historians, the local Christian Copts welcomed the Arabs just as the Monophysites did in Jerusalem. The loss of this lucrative province deprived the Byzantines of their valuable wheat supply, thereby causing food shortages throughout
7040-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
7150-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of
7260-441: The army lost many men to the thematic armies who attacked them on their route back. Among those killed in the siege was Eyup , the standard bearer of Muhammed and the last of his companions; to Muslims today, his tomb is considered one of the holiest sites in Istanbul. The setback at Constantinople was followed by further reverses across the vast Muslim empire. As Gibbon writes, "this Mahometan Alexander, who sighed for new worlds,
7370-464: The cities in the interior of the theme, i.e. in Phrygia and Pisidia, survived, albeit in a reduced form. The cities of eastern Cappadocia (the former province of Cappadocia Secunda ), however, which bordered the Caliphate, were practically destroyed, as was Antioch in Pisidia . The foundation of the new kleisourai along the eastern frontier, especially Cappadocia, in the 9th century, meant that Arab raids henceforth were absorbed there, and seldom reached
7480-480: The civil war, Muawiyah launched a series of attacks against Byzantine holdings in Africa, Sicily and the East. By 670, the Muslim fleet had penetrated into the Sea of Marmara and stayed at Cyzicus during the winter. Four years later, a massive Muslim fleet reappeared in the Marmara and re-established a base at Cyzicus, from there they raided the Byzantine coasts almost at will. Finally in 676, Muawiyah sent an army to invest Constantinople from land as well, beginning
7590-428: The command of Khalid ibn al-Walid . The Byzantine response involved the collection and dispatch of the maximum number of available troops under major commanders, including Theodore Trithyrius and the Armenian general Vahan, to eject the Muslims from their newly won territories. At the Battle of Yarmouk in 636, however, the Muslims, having studied the ground in detail, lured the Byzantines into pitched battle, which
7700-427: The conquest of Palestine by storming Caesarea Maritima and effecting their final capture of Ascalon . In December 639, the Muslims departed from Palestine to invade Egypt in early 640. By the time Heraclius died, much of Egypt had been lost, and by 637–638 the whole of Syria was in the hands of the armies of Islam. With 3,500–4,000 troops under his command, 'Amr ibn al-A'as first crossed into Egypt from Palestine at
7810-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of
7920-426: The end of 639 or the beginning of 640. He was progressively joined by further reinforcements, notably 12,000 soldiers by Zubayr ibn al-Awwam . 'Amr first besieged and conquered Babylon Fortress , and then attacked Alexandria . The Byzantines, divided and shocked by the sudden loss of so much territory, agreed to give up the city by September 642. The fall of Alexandria extinguished Byzantine rule in Egypt, and allowed
8030-520: The enemy accepted Islam or tributary status." Both as governor of Syria and later as caliph, Muawiyah I (r. 661–680) was the driving force of the Muslim effort against Byzantium, especially by his creation of a fleet, which challenged the Byzantine navy and raided the Byzantine islands and coasts. To stop the Byzantine harassment from the sea during the Arab-Byzantine Wars, in 649 Muawiyah set up
8140-555: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute
8250-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in
8360-422: The frontier and by sea. In 750 the Umayyads were overthrown by the Abbasid Caliphate , who were less expansionist than their predecessors and did not seek to eliminate the Byzantines; embassies were exchanged and there were several periods of truce. Nevertheless conflict remained the norm, with almost annual raids and counter-raids, either by the Abbasid government or by local client rulers , which continued until
8470-612: The heavily fortified Byzantine capital. Following the failed second siege, the border stabilized at the Taurus Mountains in Asia Minor . The Umayyads launched frequent attacks across this frontier, which was heavily fortified by both sides and the surrounding region became depopulated . During this period, the Byzantines were usually on the defensive, avoiding open field battles and preferring to retreat to their fortified strongholds. After 740 they began to launch their own raids across
8580-419: The highest in the Empire, and one of the few posts from which eunuchs were specifically barred. The holders of the post received an annual salary of 40 pounds of gold, and are attested as holding the senior court ranks of patrikios , anthypatos , and prōtospatharios . In addition, they were the only ones to be appointed to the exceptional post of monostrategos ("single-general"), overall commander of
8690-563: The imperial throne or launching failed rebellions to capture it. The theme and its army played an important role in the Arab–Byzantine wars of the 7th–10th centuries, after which it enjoyed a period of relative peace that lasted until its conquest by the Seljuk Turks in the late 1070s. In its "classical" form during the 8th and 9th centuries, the theme stretched over the ancient regions of Lycaonia , Pisidia , Isauria , as well as most of Phrygia and parts of Galatia Salutaris . Initially,
8800-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn
8910-432: The landward side, isolating the capital. Their attempt to complete the blockade by sea however failed when the Byzantine navy employed Greek fire against them; the Arab fleet kept well off the city walls, leaving Constantinople's supply routes open. Forced to extend the siege into winter, the besieging army suffered horrendous casualties from the cold and the lack of provisions. In spring, new reinforcements were sent by
9020-463: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
9130-404: The lost territory. The conflicts began during the early Muslim conquests under the expansionist Rashidun Caliphate , part of the initial spread of Islam . In the 630s, Rashidun forces from Arabia attacked and quickly overran Byzantium's southern provinces. Syria was captured in 639 and Egypt was conquered in 642. The Exarchate of Africa was gradually captured between 647 and 670. From
9240-645: The main Arabo-Islamic religious centers in the Middle Ages . Then ibn Nafi " plunged into the heart of the country, traversed the wilderness in which his successors erected the splendid capitals of Fes and Morocco , and at length penetrated to the verge of the Atlantic and the great desert " . In his conquest of the Maghreb , Uqba Ibn Nafi took the coastal cities of Bejaia and Tangier , overwhelming what had once been
9350-621: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek
9460-436: The mid-10th century. Byzantine attempts to take back the lands they had lost only provoked Abbasid retaliation, in the form of destructive invasions of Asia Minor. Arab naval raids reached a peak in the 9th and early 10th centuries: their fleets attacked the coasts of Italy and Dalmatia , while Abassid vassals conquered Crete in 827 and gradually took Sicily from 831 to 878. Due to political instability beginning in 861 ,
9570-404: The middle of the 8th century. The thematic capital, Amorium, was also a frequent target of the Arabs. It was attacked already in 644, captured in 646, and briefly occupied in 669. The Arabs reached it again in 708 and besieged it without success in 716, during their march on Constantinople . The tide of the Arab attacks ebbed in the 740s, after the Byzantine victory at the Battle of Akroinon and
9680-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and
9790-449: The new caliph, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (r. 717–720), by sea from Africa and Egypt and over land through Asia Minor. The crews of the new fleets were composed mostly of Christians, who began defecting in large numbers, while the land forces were ambushed and defeated in Bithynia . As famine and an epidemic continued to plague the Arab camp, the siege was abandoned on 15 August 718. On its return,
9900-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks
10010-463: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It
10120-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
10230-513: The real number, it was a huge force, far larger than the imperial army. Thankfully for Leo and the Empire, the capital's sea walls had recently been repaired and strengthened. In addition, the emperor concluded an alliance with the Bulgar khan Tervel , who agreed to harass the invaders' rear. From July 717 to August 718, the city was besieged by land and sea by the Muslims, who built an extensive double line of circumvallation and contravallation on
10340-627: The recurring outbreaks of bubonic plague ( Plague of Justinian ) left both empires exhausted and vulnerable in the face of the sudden emergence and expansion of the Arabs . The last of the wars between the Roman and Persian empires ended with victory for the Byzantines: Emperor Heraclius regained all lost territories, and restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in 629. Nevertheless, neither empire
10450-609: The southern approaches of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus mountain ranges, leaving Syria in Muslim and the Anatolian plateau in Byzantine hands. Both Emperor Heraclius and the Caliph ' Umar (r. 634–644) pursued a strategy of destruction within this zone, trying to transform it into an effective barrier between the two realms. Nevertheless, the Umayyads still considered the complete subjugation of Byzantium as their ultimate objective. Their thinking
10560-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
10670-533: The turmoil of the Third Fitna and the Abbasid Revolution , and under Emperor Constantine V (r. 741–775), the Anatolics spearheaded the Byzantine campaigns into Arab-held territory. This in turn provoked the reaction of the Abbasid Caliphate , which in the quarter-century after 780 launched repeated invasions of Byzantine Asia Minor. Thus the Anatolics suffered a heavy defeat at Kopidnadon in 788, and Amorium
10780-574: The western and northern portions of the theme in the subsequent decades under the Komnenian emperors, but the Anatolic Theme was never reconstituted. Directly facing the forces of the Caliphate during its first centuries of existence, and benefiting from its support of the Isaurian emperors , the Anatolic Theme was the most powerful and most prestigious of the themes. Its very power, however, also meant that it
10890-568: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
11000-468: Was a potential threat to the emperors: already in 669, the thematic army revolted and forced Constantine IV (r. 668–685) to re-install his brothers, Heraclius and Tiberius as his co-emperors, while in 695 a former stratēgos , Leontios (r. 695–698), usurped the throne from Justinian II (r. 685–695, 705–711), and in 717 the then stratēgos , Leo the Isaurian , became emperor (Leo III, r. 717–741) after deposing Theodosios III (r. 715–717). Henceforth,
11110-549: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of
11220-546: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
11330-454: Was dominated by Islamic teaching, which placed the infidel Byzantines in the Dār al-Ḥarb , the "House of War", which, in the words of Islamic scholar Hugh N. Kennedy , "the Muslims should attack whenever possible; rather than peace interrupted by occasional conflict, the normal pattern was seen to be conflict interrupted by occasional, temporary truce ( hudna ). True peace ( ṣulḥ ) could only come when
11440-574: Was given any chance to recover, as within a few years they found themselves in conflict with the Arabs (newly united by Islam), which, according to Howard-Johnston, "can only be likened to a human tsunami". According to George Liska, the "unnecessarily prolonged Byzantine–Persian conflict opened the way for Islam". In the late 620s, the Islamic Prophet Muhammad had already managed to unify much of Arabia under Muslim rule via conquest as well as making alliances with neighboring tribes, and it
11550-506: Was marked by Arab victories in Asia Minor and civil unrest. Reportedly, he ordered his guards to execute the only unit that had not deserted him after one battle, to prevent their desertion in the next. Justinian's first and second depositions were followed by internal disorder, with successive revolts and emperors lacking legitimacy or support. In this climate, the Umayyads consolidated their control of Armenia and Cilicia, and began preparing
11660-402: Was threatened again in 797. In the early years of the 9th century, Cappadocia was the focus of Arab attacks, which culminated in the great invasion of 806 led by Caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809) himself, which took Heraclea Cybistra and several other forts. The late antique urban fabric suffered considerably from the Arab attacks and the concomitant decline of urbanization, but most of
11770-483: Was unable to preserve his recent conquests. By the universal defection of the Greeks and Africans he was recalled from the shores of the Atlantic." His forces were directed at putting down rebellions, and in one such battle he was surrounded by insurgents and killed. Then, the third governor of Africa, Zuheir, was overthrown by a powerful army, sent from Constantinople by Constantine IV for the relief of Carthage . Meanwhile,
11880-452: Was under his leadership that the first Muslim–Byzantine skirmishes took place. Just a few months after Emperor Heraclius and the Persian general Shahrbaraz agreed on terms for the withdrawal of Persian troops from occupied Byzantine eastern provinces in 629, Arab and Byzantine troops confronted each other at the Battle of Mu'tah in response to the murder of Muhammad's ambassador at the hands of
11990-566: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
12100-605: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
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